Bill Banfield – “Essays of Note”

Arts and culture correspondent Bill Banfield explains why you should refrain from using the “J-Word”—jazz, that is—in an all new “Essays of Note”.

180 Comments

Chuck
November 24, 2012 at 8:46 pm

For what audience was this essay intended? I’m sorry, but I have to say that it was unbelievably long-winded, abstract, and difficult to follow. What I got out of it was the observation that jazz is no longer popular, and the question “who should define what jazz is?”

Is that the same as asking, “What is jazz”? I don’t think one would ask, “What does country music mean?”

“And who gets to decide what face jazz puts on a corporate executive or on contemporary artists who want their voices to define the substance of the culture of the music?”

What does that mean? “Substance of the culture of the music”? Why not just say, “the culture of the music”? The sentence would make more sense to me if you asked, “Who gets to decide what face jazz puts on, a corporate executive or contemporary artists who want their voices to define the culture of the music?”

“Given a competitive market for [the?] commercial/art dollar, how will it maintain its distinctive voice, character that was once needed to define what it was, or how the culture saw and used it?”

“culture poisoned identity”?

I wish I had a dollar for every time you used the word “culture” or “cultural”.

Maybe I’m just not educated enough to understand your writing. If that’s the case, then so are many other Tavis Smiley radio listeners, which means your essay went over many other heads as well as mine.

It would be nice if you would express your ideas more clearly and succinctly so more of us could understand what you are saying.

Thank You so much Chuck.
Yes, this radio essay was long- winded, and guess what…, this was the edited version.
Some times with this kind of thing, ” essay”, as a writer,thinker, you kind of, ” stretch”.
Thannks for reaching out.

I’ll be sure to mindful of, more clarity on these.
Much,much appreciated.

I recently watched the debate between columnist Stanley Crouch and percussionist James Mtume on the evolution of modern jazz with great interest. Crouch, the steadfast jazz purist, essentially took the position that much of what’s passing for jazz today is actually a corruption of the art form, while Mtume took the position that Crouch was simply out of touch with the new face of jazz.
.
In my opinion, Stanley Crouch was right, and James Mtume was simply remaining consistent with what his musical philosophy seems to advocate – playing to the audience and giving applause priority over substance. But Crouch made the mistake of not framing the issue in a way that would allow him to sieze the bottom line. It’s not about the new versus the old; what the discussion is actually about is quality versus lesser quality, and that can be measured . . . MORE
.http://wattree.blogspot.com/2012/07/relections-on-stanley-crouch-mtume.html

Eric.
I read your piece, and responded directly to your email.
I’ll write here too…
Much appreciated your response.
I think the issues you raise and the concern for jazz forward is soooo important.
I promise in these, to stay on the the case!
My best,
B

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